There are several marketing efforts related to offering incentives to promote certain customer spending behaviors. For example, a merchant may offer a loyalty program to provide rewards, such as a discount, rebate, gift, etc., to encourage customers to purchase from the merchant. For example, a credit card issuer may offer a loyalty program to encourage cardholders to use the credit card from the issuer. For example, merchants and issuers may cooperate to offer loyalty programs to promote their respective services and products. Reward programs have become increasingly sophisticated.
In one embodiment, a loyalty program maintains an account for a customer to accumulate benefits earned by the customer in connection with activities related to the loyalty program. For example, after the customer performs certain actions that satisfy the rules of the loyalty program, such as making a purchase from the merchant sponsoring the loyalty program, or making a payment using a credit card from the issuer providing the loyalty program, an amount of rewards are credited to the reward account of the customer.
Rewards can be quantified in various units, such as points, miles, stars, digital cash, etc. For convenience, the term “reward point” includes any unit that has been used, and may be used in the future, to quantify the rewards.
Some issuers have allowed/promoted the consolidation of rewards earned through customer relationships, such as hotels, airlines, oil companies, etc. These rewards are typically limited to the purchases made using the payment cards from the respective issuers. The amounts of the rewards are calculated based on the purchases charged on the payment cards. In some cases, some issuers may allow consolidation of reward points that are earned without making a purchase on the payment cards from the respective issuers. To consolidate rewards, the issuers and/or their partners in the loyalty program use files to exchange information about the rewards.
Issuers have used online catalogs or participating merchants for the redemption of the rewards accumulated in the reward account of a customer. For example, from an online catalog, a customer may request a gift, product or service for the price of a predetermined amount of reward points. For example, at a participating merchant, the customer may redeem an amount of reward points for a product or service.